(Spirit Lake)– Severe Weather Awareness Week continues this week in Iowa with today’s (Thurs.) topic being hail and wind safety. Dickinson County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret says damaging wind events are more prevalent than tornadoes and can produce the same level of destruction in some circumstances…
“A lot of times severe thunderstorm warnings tend to get ignored. People really need to pay attention to those warnings and do need to take shelter for thunderstorm warnings. Tornado warnings get all of the attention and all the hype but if you think back to the derecho that hit central and eastern Iowa back in 2020, that was a severe thunderstorm. Even though the winds were in excess of 100 mph in places, which, you know, I believe is an EF 2 tornado. It was only a severe thunderstorm and it only got a severe thunderstorm warning, so it’s very important to heed those warnings. We’ve had multiple cases here just in the lakes area back in 2010 in July we had a bad storm come down from the north and winds were measured at almost 100 mph here. Again, that was a severe thunderstorm. Severe thunderstorm warnings need to be taken just as seriously as tornado warnings.”
Ehret adds it’s important to stay away from windows when severe thunderstorms are imminent or occurring. Strong wind, especially when its accompanied by large hail, can shatter glass.
Severe Weather Awareness Week concludes Friday with the topic being flood safety, something many are familiar with after what happened in June of last year.
